


Anticipation and Everything After

by callista1159



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: F/M, Season/Series 09, Washington D.C.
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-03
Updated: 2014-12-03
Packaged: 2018-02-28 01:54:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,224
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2714642
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/callista1159/pseuds/callista1159
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sam encounters Jack at an Air Force function in DC after he's assigned as Head of Homeworld Security, and maybe there is something left for them to salvage, after everything.</p><p>Non-canon, season 9, written in one shot, so Iet me know if I've missed typos.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Anticipation and Everything After

It’s colder in the room than Sam has come to expect from a function hall, but then it’s DC in December and there’s snow on the ground outside. She is at least wearing her Mess Dress rather than black tie, so has a couple of layers of fabric and a veneer of bravado keeping her warm as dozens of Air Force personnel work the room around her.

Once upon a time she might have imagined herself here networking with the best of them, but these days she spends more time in the field and in her lab than working on her career connections. Funny what a few intergalactic wars will do to one’s idea of necessary mingling. 

Sam grabs a glass of something sparkling to keep her hands busy. She’s not entirely sure why her presence is required, but Landry had been firm and anyway she thinks she might take the opportunity to catch up with General O’Neill while she’s here. In truth, she’s missed him since he was appointed Head of Homeworld Security and transferred to DC. 

She’s trying not to overthink that feeling.

The venue is appropriately grand for half the senior brass of the Air Force and several senior staff from the President’s administration, with chandeliers and drapes and an air of understated elegance. It’s dressed for the season and there are elegant wreaths adorning the walls and subtle lights giving just a hint of twinkle in the lobby. Sam makes small talk with several colonels and a brigadier general, sticking to the party line and watching their eyes glaze slightly as she enthuses about her work in about Deep Space Radar Telemetry. The smarter of them are aware that she has the assignment in common with the newest general in town and don’t push their luck with more than a raised eyebrow and a smirk.

Sam only realizes that her stomach is heavy with anticipation when she catches sight of the general across the room and her breath catches with recognition and relief. She schools her features as she takes a sip of her champagne and tries to get a grip on her racing pulse. He has lost a little of his tan in the few months since he’d left the SGC but he looks lean and in control in his uniform as he works the room. Sam pretends to herself that she’s not watching him but after she finds herself counting the minutes for an appropriately timed gaze in his direction, she gives up and finds herself a seat, indulging herself. Her heels were starting to make her feet ache, anyway.

She marvels that he has made this transition and is now bigwigging with the best and brightest of Washington’s elite, when only a few months before he was just as likely to be found covered in mud, laying down cover fire, and trading insults with enemies of the Tau’ri. 

On second thought, maybe his time at the SGC was exactly the right kind of preparation for a career in Washington DC.

Sam is so caught up in her memories that she doesn’t notice him until he’s at her elbow with an easy grin.  
“Hey, Carter.” Jack leans toward her in greeting and she only belatedly realizes that he’s intending to kiss her cheek. Her face burns where he has touched her and to her everlasting mortification she finds herself blushing in response.

“Sir! I mean, hello, sir.” She swears he’s smirking just a little at her and she pretends she hasn’t noticed either her blush or his warm smile, for the sake of her sanity. He asks how she’s finding the party and she responds, truthfully, that it’s not where she expected to find herself this weekend. 

“I’m glad you’re here though, Carter,” he says sincerely. “You – you look good. Is Mitchell settling in ok? Not driving you nuts? Daniel behaving himself?”

Sam feels the knot in her stomach relax just a little bit as she answers him, “For the most part: Mitchell’s keen but he’s a good guy, smart. Daniel’s – well, Daniel, and we’ve been working on a study of a proto-Cretan civilization that he –“

“Ah! Ah-ah-ah Carter, I didn’t come over here to check up on your work. There will be a report on it at some stage, of that I have no doubt.” He’s grinning broadly at her as he interjects and she feels a warm rush of familiarity even in spite of the rather unfamiliar surroundings. 

Sam laughs. “And you’re sure you don’t want a preview?”

It’s not entirely in her imagination when he leers a little bit at that. “Anytime Carter, anytime.”

But his time is not his own these days and one of his aides finds him with a low word. The general grimaces at her apologetically and gives her a little wave that she chooses to interpret as later, Carter.

She thinks maybe the room feels a little warmer now. 

* * * * * * * * * * * ** *

Sam put in her time at the party but she’s not used to this kind of interaction anymore and she thinks it was worth it to catch up with the general, however briefly.

She’s queueing for her coat in the lobby when she feels a hand at the base of her spine and she has to quell the urge to strike first and ask questions later. She’s a little edgy about her personal space these days. But it’s the General’s voice in her ear and it reassures her instantly.

“Surely you don’t expect me to let you go without offering to buy you a coffee, Carter?"

There’s something a little uneasy in his voice as he asks, but he pitches the question low and it brings back that old familiar shiver in Sam’s spine. Not everything changes, then.

Sam grabs her thick wool service coat from the bellhop before she gathers her wits enough to answer him. She lifts her chin and meets his eyes, a little smile as she answers, “I’d like that. It’s a little chilly to be wandering around, though –“ (she can’t help but notice that his expression blanks the way he always does when he’s trying to hide his reaction to something), “ – so maybe we could grab a coffee at my hotel?”

His eyes are dark and unreadable as he contemplates her offer, no doubt taking in the listening ears around them and the fact that neither of them can rely on anonymity these days. Instead of answering, he offers his elbow and they head for the street. Sam notices that it’s been snowing through the course of the evening, but it’s clear now and she thinks it’s a little bit beautiful as their breath freezes and mingles ahead of them. 

She thinks he’s a little bit beautiful too.

It’s a short stroll in companionable silence down the couple of blocks to her hotel. Sam tells herself that there’s nothing untoward about her former commanding officer her escorting her back - even in DC these days, not everyone welcomes uniformed military on the streets and she’s inhibited just a little by her heels.

There’s a small, late night coffee stand in a side room from the lobby and Sam supposes that it’s a reasonable place to start. But the general surprises her by ordering two black coffees to go and he can’t quite meet her eyes when he suggests they take them up to her room. Even then she rationalizes to herself that they can catch up in private where there’s no risk of bumping into someone one of them knows. The slow, heady feeling of anticipation is back, but this time with an edge of something altogether more decadent. Sam mentally counts back the number of drinks she had that evening to figure out if that could account for the buzz she’s feeling. And then his hand brushes against hers in the elevator and she figures it’s not the alcohol after all.

At her room he has the grace to look a little uncertain, as if anything about this situation hasn’t been ordained by the universe, by every universe, since the moment they met.

“Sam,” he says – Sam, now – “Sam, is this… ok? Coffee, I mean?” And he looks so sincere as he brandishes their paper cups that she can’t help but smile her acquiescence. She fumbles the door lock a little but they make it inside and for the first time she’s glad that her rank qualifies her for a suite of rooms these days. They make for the small seating area and Sam is glad for the distraction of her coffee. She sips it carefully and she’s not sure what they are supposed to being saying to one another, but it feels right to be here, now. She notices in the abstract that she is trembling ever so slightly, but it’s not from cold.

Jack shifts and it looks like he’s going to ask her something, but before he has the chance, and before she knows what or why she’s doing it, Sam has put down her coffee and shifted next to him, kneeling at his side and not failing to notice the flare of his nostrils as he _definitely_ doesn’t flinch.

And then she’s kissing him and he tastes of coffee and spice and something indefinably him, and his hands are at her hips, pulling her over and down into his lap with a certainty she doesn’t quite feel herself.

She tangles her hands in the hair at the nape of his neck and suddenly they’re both panting, gasping, tugging at their collars and jackets. He’s whispering, “ _God, Sam_ ” as his thumbs find her hipbones and his long fingers span the shape of her waist. There’s a low thrum of energy wherever his body touches hers and his open-mouth kisses are fuelling the liquid burn in her belly. From the way his body is responding to hers, long and lithe and so very hot, she thinks she’s not alone in wanting to feel more than just the thick fabric of their uniforms between them.

Jack catches her eye and pauses, mid kiss, to say “ _Want you, Sam. I’ve wanted you -_ ”, and she figures that they’ve been on this collision course for a while now, even with the temporary interruption of living in two different states. 

She slides off her jacket without losing her balance and he groans his assent, running his hands over her body like he can’t quite believe she’s really there. After everything they’ve been through together her brain isn’t processing the fact that she’s finally touching him, really touching him. The rest of their clothes follow her jacket into a heap on the floor and she gets a rush from tasting the groove where his shoulder meets his neck just so, while his hands are brushing the edges of her underwear, tantilisingly close to where she needs him to be.

His warm mouth finds her breast and lightly tastes her, making her moan in a way that might be embarrassing if they hadn’t been carefully not doing exactly this for the last eight years. Jack looks a little bit in awe, but he’s a fast study and between his fingers and his mouth she is thrilling with the sensations he’s creating for her. She grabs his hands and rises in one fluid motion, bringing him with her as she heads blindly for the hotel bed, stumbling a little, holding tight.

They pause at the base of the bed for a moment, standing, tangled. Jack’s eyes are black in the half-light and they’re both straining for air. She has a hand at his sternum, rising and falling with the rhythm of his breathing, and she’s not sure if she’ll ever recapture the feeling of this moment of knowing him in such a strange new way. His expression is intent, serious, perhaps not seeing the strangeness of finally finding each other here, after everything. 

She gives him a wicked little grin as a warning before lowering her hand to grasp his arousal, and pulling both of them backwards onto the bed. In one fluid movement, she has him inside of her and they both have their eyes open, incredulous, and a little humbled. Sam smiles for him before her lips find his again and they’re lost to themselves for a little while. They begin to shift, slowly at first, quietly losing themselves together. Jack nudges her long legs around his thighs and then his waist, trailing his hands over her skin, pushing her hair back from her face. 

The anticipation that has been building, for this evening and forever, coalesces slowly in Sam’s belly until her body is humming with the sensation of having him inside her. His thrusts are a little less precise now and his breathing is ragged. Sam thinks that despite everything she’s been witness to, this is the most beautiful sight in the universe. Then Jack slides into her a little harder and she stops thinking entirely; everything in her being rising up into the sensation of kissing him until she spills over, gasping, bringing him with her as she comes.

The room is silver and black from the reflected light of snow outside, and Sam sees him in profile next to her as they come around to themselves. 

She takes Jack’s hand. 

Maybe they’ll be ok after all.

**Author's Note:**

> ETA: thank you so very much to bethanyactually for finding some silly mistakes and gently pointing them out for me :)


End file.
